Monday Musings

I’m currently enjoying one of my favorite times of the week, Monday Morning Me Time 🙂

I’ve mentioned it before, but on a lot of Monday mornings one of my besties watches Bobby while Ryland is in preschool, allowing me to have time to literally do ANYTHING. It’s always hard to decide, but lately I’ve been trying to use that time to write at a nearby Starbucks (I am that cliche). Any stay at home mom who also blogs/writes freelance/writes anything can probably relate to the struggle of finding time to write. I can sometimes plop Ryland down in front of Sesame Street and write a little or even write on my phone while Bobby nurses, but I when I do this I tend to feel like I’m giving 50% to my writing and 50% to my children, so both are sort of getting short shift. I’m trying to write in blocks when I’m alone or when the kids are napping, because then my time with them can be better spent (like scrolling mindlessly through my phone, kidding! sort of).

So a quick recap of what’s on my mind this Monday:

Yesterday was actually a pretty nice March day. It even got to 60 degrees for a change (even though supposedly it’s going to SNOW this week, I’m not even looking at the forecast, I honestly would prefer not to know what’s coming if it’s more winter weather). Since R was off we did our suburban parent of small children thing and headed to the mall (in our defense it’s a really pretty outdoor mall, and sometimes with little babies you just need a giant enclosed area where they can run and not get too muddy or endanger of being hit by a car.) And Ryland LOVES it. She literally takes off like a bat out of hell the moment we get there. She’s so fast and runs so far ahead of us (even when we are literally running after her, stroller and all), that it’s comical to watch the faces of all the passerby who see this little almost 2 year old streaking by them at alarming speed, seemingly unencumbered by adult caretakers or polite rules of society. I always see them search the crowd to ensure that she is in fact not just an escapee from the nearby Children’s Museum and I try to reassure them with a smile (as I continue to jog to keep up with my tiny daughter) that despite what it seems, we are actually watching her.

Her absolute favorite part of the mall though is the fountains (and there are so many fountains, I never realized just how many fountains/water features/ponds there are at this mall until I had a toddler intent on flinging her entire body into them). She loves water and every chance she got she would climb up onto the nearest fountain and thrash her arms into the water. Even better were the ponds with rocks on the bottom, which Ryland tried to dive for. Let’s just say there was a lot of desperate clutching to prevent her from toppling over into the water.

2. After the mall we grabbed Chipotle on the way home and for me warm weather + Mexican food = a craving for Corona with lime and salt. So we made it into a little mini Sunday funday.

You can’t see the label, but this is Valentina hot sauce, the BEST hot sauce in all the land.

3. Since it’s the middle of the month, I’ve gotten ALL of the magazine delivered. And I love a spring/Easter issue. It just feels so fresh and exciting and renewing. And yes I do subscribe to a ridiculous amount of magazines. But I always get those super cheap deals for magazine subscriptions and it’s so much less expensive than impulse buying them at the grocery store every month.

4. Speaking of magazines/catalogues, I got the Lily Pulitzer for PB Kids catalogue (you can see it peeking out above), and it’s a problem. I am not even a big Lily person. I tend to live in black and gray and light shades (plus at this point in my life I don’t really want to spend a ton of money on fancy clothes that a toddler is going to rub peanut butter all over on a regular basis). But I guess somewhere deep inside me there is a super preppy sorority girl, and she was awakened by this catalogue. Because COME ON! Look at this cuteness.

I do not need another glider (we have two), but how I wish I did. How sweet is this chair? And they have it in so many adorable prints. And what about these ridiculously cute bedrooms/nurseries?

I literally cannot. Luckily for our bank account, almost all of this stuff is backordered until like 2023. But if we have baby #3 and baby #3 is a girl (would it be wrong to have another baby mostly for the ability to decorate a nursery with this collection?) her room is going to look like Palm Beach exploded all over it.

5. This one is short and simple. But sometimes she can be so insanely sweet with him. Like when she brings him her stuffed animals and then tries to give him a “hug.” Oh how it makes my mama heart feel all the feels.